Forgiveness is a mysterious idea. It means something different to everyone.



Yet everyone senses that forgiveness is vital to the human soul, to our ability to renew, to hope and to change. To heal pain, to face the past, to traverse the boundary between justice and revenge, to move ahead into the future.



So the theme of forgiveness is well-suited to artistic creation: we all sense what it is, but its expression remains deep, enigmatic, and personal.



The Hawai'i Forgiveness Project seeks to make forgiveness a living experience, a skill that we exercise in our daily lives. One way to evoke a mystery is through the arts, a universal language that all can experience, regardless of background.



That's why we established the Forgiveness Arts Awards. Here we share images and poetry by artists from Hawai'i , presented to the public on International Forgiveness Day (the first Sunday in August), 2005 through 2008. You can also see this work online, at http://www.hawaiiforgivenessproject.org.



The quality and diversity of the artistic community in Hawai'i is extraordinary; though we are small, we produce an astonishing variety of artistic expression, from ancient to modern, abstract to literal, intimate to universal. These works reflect the depth of our island 'Ohana.